This disclosure is directed to an impulse pump. It utilizes an external housing formed of metal which surrounds an axial passage, the passage being lined with an internal tubular sleeve. The tubular sleeve serves as a means of isolating the fluid that is pumped from the pumping apparatus. The impulse pump is useful in practically any circumstances where a fluid must be pumped. It can be oriented horizontally, for instance. However, the pump can be positioned where it pumps upwardly at any desired angle. The pump thus imparts a squeezing action to the fluid that is pumped. The squeezing action in particular resembles that imparted by hand milking a cow. On the cascading of two or three of the pumps in series, the squeezing action is performed in a first pump and thereafter occurs in a second pump. The timing, of course, is dependent on many scale factors, including spacing between consecutive pumps, the relative diameter of the axial passage and many other factors.
Pumps of this sort find application in many areas. For instance, the pump is able to move a fluid of almost any viscosity and including viscous slurries. This is accomplished without contacting the fluid pump with the pumping apparatus. Restated, the pump is lined with a resilient and, hence, chemically inert material, and it is, therefore, able to avoid contamination from the pumped material. Piston pumps, as an example, require lubrication of the piston, which introduces a lubricant which at least is found in trace quantities in the fluid to be pumped. It is possible to build a pump which leaks in the opposite direction, namely leakage of the pumped fluid through the piston rings, but this presents problems of its own. This pump avoids both problems.
The present invention is an impulse pump which utilizes the power delivered to the pump in the form of an electrical spark. The size, current, and frequency are scale factors. They can be varied depending on the requirements of the situation.